usability

Better Software Magazine Articles

Agile practices go a long way toward providing value to our customers. But in today's market, we must endeavor to adopt a more user-centered approach to create products our customers can't live without.

The shiniest software application in the world, shipped on time and under budget, is a failure if it doesn't make someone's job easier. Failures cost us customers and money. How can we design software that our customers want to use and that will reduce our cost of failure?

Think you know what your customer wants? Can you afford to be wrong? Based on the concept of tracer ammunition, which allows a shooter to follow the path of a bullet toward its target and adjust his aim as needed, tracer bullet software development can help you better understand your users’ wants so you can build a product that hits the mark.

There is a natural relationship between the features in a product and the customer's satisfaction with that product, but not every feature influences customers in the same way. The best plan for satisfying customers, as author Mike Cohn explains, is to give them what they want.

Need information but don’t have time to wade through bookracks looking for that perfect reference? The StickyMinds.com Books Guide can help. Get the scoop from StickyMinds.com members on three books that can keep you up to date on the latest issues.

We make software so that people can use it. Yet these users are so hard to define that they are often simply ignored. This six-step approach to Interaction Design can help you bring your customers down to size so that you can provide the right product for them.

Jeff Johnson examines user interface problems caused by designers trying to rearrange users' data. He gives examples of software that is too helpful, and concludes that software should support users in their management of displays without managing the displays for them.